All joking aside, it will be interesting to see if refugees will tolerate conscription. One quarter of the population (and a significantly higher percentage of the younger fighting age male population) is either foreign born or the child of someone foreign born.

Conscription is always controversial and the questions of national identity that have in the past provided a social framework for supporting it are much fuzzier now. The question of "What is a Swede" would no longer be a theoretical one. On the other hand, almost all extant nationalities were hammered out on an anvil of blood soaked fields...

My son is now a conscript (Finland has roughly 21 000 at any one time, plus 12 000 professionals in service) and having seen the troops, it looks like the black skins are just as happy or unhappy there as the white skins, if not happier. The conscript army is a melting pot where everyone's former life becomes not very relevant; whether you come from a rich family or poor, whether you have high school education or not, you start with the same kit and stand in the same line taking the same orders. Often shit, but it's the same shit for everyone.

I believe there is some racism as there is everywhere, but overall I think the armed forces are a place where someone who came as a refugee in on more even terms with others than anywhere else before that.

The majority of foreign-born people in Sweden did not arrive as refugees. About half were born in Europe, with Finland - which is very similar in culture and also has conscription (as well as a much larger army) - being the most common country.

Source: http://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/START__BE_... (official gov't statistics)

Historically Sweden has not been invaded in quite a long time, right?

Last war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish–Norwegian_War_(1814)

So +200 years without war and counting

I think vspecnur was talking about "Last Night in Sweden" (which sounds like a softcore porn movie but is a different kind of fantasy).

I believe OP was referring to the refugee crisis we've had in Sweden lately. It's put a huge strain on the country, and our prisons often have better amenities than refugee camps which is a recipe for disaster.

I don't get why people hold this up as an accomplishment.

The world has been at war several times and Sweden has fought only a few times on small scales. When you building is on fire, but your are safe in your flat, it's not a moral decision to lock your door and goto sleep for the night.

Actually, until Napoleonic wars, Sweden was pretty much in a constant state of war. For instance, my great-grandfather in 12th generation (then a Swedish subject in Östprovinsen, now known as Finland) earned himself a little manor house (tax-exempt and all that) by spending a couple of decades in the Thirty Years War pillaging Prague and other places.

Well, many others were also warring a lot then, but the change was quite abrupt in Sweden, and then the country even managed to stay out of WWI and WWII.

Of course, in Cold War it was actually operating with the U.S. but the war was not, well, hot.

Sweden was bombed by USSR a few times in 1940 and 1944, though.

Sweden is maybe the only country in the world that has no independence day.

Not exactly true, imo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_War_of_Liberation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Day_of_Sweden

Yeah, the Kalmar Union is the one debatable exception.

You can either view it as Sweden being ruled by Denmark, or a EU style union between equals, in which case 1523 is more of a Brexit situation.

There are decent arguments on both side. I lean towards the latter view.

Instituting a National Day in to remember it is more a modern way to try to keep up with the neighbors. All other countries have a national day, so we should get one too, even though we're not really sure what to do with it :)

Canada's Confederation day (July 1st, 1876) has nothing to do with Canadian independence (Which happened at the time that the Canada Act was signed by the British parliament - April 17, 1982.)

The UK doesn't have one either.

As long as pesky Nigel doesn't have his way.

Or Ethiopia